


Red Heart

by XinaV



Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Alice In Wonderland AU, Alice Yeosang, Dormouse Wooyoung, Mad Hatter Yunho, March Hare Mingi, Red King Seonghwa, Twist on Wonderland, White Knight/Knave of Hearts Jongho, White Rabbit Hongjoong, cheshire cat san
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-11
Updated: 2020-11-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:48:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 17,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27518662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XinaV/pseuds/XinaV
Summary: Welcome to Wonderland!A land of amazement, curiosity, strangeness, and surprise—everyone knows Wonderland. Everyone knows the story of this incredible land.But do youreally?(I promise you, you don't.)I'll be nice and let you in on a little secret—are you listening? Good. The King of Hearts isnotcalled that because of his card suit like many believe. No, the king obtained his title because of a...hobby of his. You see, every decade when a new person falls down the rabbit hole into Wonderland, this scarlet royal likes to lure the unsuspecting visitor to him and then*pauses for dramatic effect*take their hearts straight out of their chest. That's right, the king quite literally a stealer of hearts. A very dangerous one.This, my friends, is the story of the one time he failed at obtaining the beautiful red organ all because he underestimated his last visitor—the ever-observant Kang Yeosang.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 10





	1. Welcome to Wonderland

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! I do hope you enjoy my take on Wonderland with these wonderful boys (no pun intended). Red King Seonghwa can take my heart any day but that's for another time. I do love Alice Yeosang so I hope you do too.
> 
> To Wonderland!

Welcome to Wonderland—where the water falls towards the skies, flowers change petals like dresses, and gibberish is an official dialect. This place is everything you can imagine, and everything you can’t. 

It’s a wacky, wonderful world you would expect to be sprawled out on pages. An absolutely crazy paradise.

Oh, but nothing is ever as it seems in paradise. Wonderland is no different.

You see, Wonderland, in all its kookiness and “wonder,” has quite the ending attached to it. Any visitors who are unfortunate enough to find themselves in that mind-bending land quickly find that the fairytale surroundings they see around them will bring their own stories to a quick end. 

There is no afterword, no epilogue, and no chance for any sequel.

In simple words—which aren’t used often around here—you visit Wonderland, you die in Wonderland. Get it?

No?

Hmmm, that’s a first, even for you. Fine, then—a story may prove it. Are you ready to hear the truth of this land of wonder?

To begin this story, you must know the king. The illustrious King of Hearts—also known as his highness Park Seonghwa. 

The king is quite literally everything to Wonderland. This beautiful silly world is connected to the king so as long as he lives, so does Wonderland. If he is happy then the sun shines, flowers show their best dresses, and all is right in the land. If he is sad, the sky is cloudy, everything wilts, and things are at a standstill. And if he is angry...well, we will skip over that part for now. The point is that he and the world are connected. He is never-aging—as many Wonderland natives are—so he will never grow old and die. No one is foolish enough to try to harm him so he will never be killed. He does get sick here and there—having caught the sneezies, the meeps, and the bubbles a few times—but nothing that could be life-threatening. So in all, Wonderland has been around for quite some time and will be around for much longer.

Now, when dealing with the Wonderland king there are three things one must know. One, he loves red. Whatever you bring him must be red (or black, he likes black too). If it’s not, he’ll paint it red with the blood from your head—hehe that rhymes—after he beheads you. Two, he likes cleanliness. Everything must be clean and orderly (however he decides to order it for that day). If you dirty something of his, it will be off with your head. And three, he does not like to lose. If you have the honor of playing a game with him, you must lose. It will make him smile and then he will invite you for sweets to make you feel better after the loss, knowing how bad it feels to lose. But if you dare to win, he will not be happy. He lost the game, you lose your head—do you see a pattern here? 

Wait, we’re getting off track here—those rules aren’t necessary to this story. Back on track: Park Seonghwa, the King of Hearts and absolutely essential to Wonderland. This is clear, yes? Good. Moving forward now.

Many outsiders who hear of his title believe that it comes from the card theme that he has all throughout his palace and wardrobe. Some citizens—the ones who never pay attention to anything—believe that his title is because he is the heart of the land and without him, none of them would survive. Touching, logical, noble but in the end all wrong.

The king gained his title because of a...hobby...yes, hobby (we’ll go with that) that he enjoys. His royal highness likes to lure unsuspecting visitors to him and then take their hearts straight out of their chest. To see the beautiful red stain his hands before he uses the once beating heart to strengthen himself, it gives him such great pleasure. In all of his years of living, he has yet to find anything that gives him the boost and thrill that a fresh heart does.

He discovered this joy many moons ago when the very first visitor came to Wonderland.

Every decade, a special rabbit hole to the other world opens up. The only person in Wonderland who can travel via rabbit hole is none other than the White Rabbit, Kim Hongjoong. He found the hole leading to the world above by accident though. He took a wrong turn while in a rush to King Seonghwa’s party and ended up in the strangest of lands. He had no time to look around though—he was going to be late if he didn’t hurry. So back down the rabbit hole he went, determined to make it to his friend on time.

Little did he know that a curious girl followed him down.

From here, many know the general idea of the story. Granted she was actually a bit older than usually thought of but for the most part, her journey was the same. She made quite the commotion and that’s saying something in this world.

Where the story differs, however, is when she arrives at the palace.

Guards were painting roses red for the king’s party and she followed along. That’s when she met him. He was just called “The King” then, no hearts involved in the title, but was pretty much still the same—loved red, loved cleanliness, and hated losing. He had already heard about the peculiar girl—Alice, she said her name was—who was causing quite the show in the land so when she appeared in his garden, he wanted to see for himself what she was like. Like the kind person that he is, he invited her to play a game because everyone loves a good game.

She did not like his game.

Threw his stuff she did and called him a no-good crazy cheater. She said his game was stupid and she didn’t want to play with him. Such harsh words when he was only trying to show hospitality to the disruptive visitor. It was his party, how dare she talk to him that way?

So of course, he ordered for her to be beheaded.

Oh but those stupid cookies made her too big for his guards to get her. She just knocked them down like a deck of cards and started talking as if she owned the palace. He couldn’t let her get away though—for that would mean he would have lost and he does not like losing.

Fortunately for him, being connected to the land itself does have its perks. After all, he would not be a very good king if he could not gain control over situations.

Before you knew it, he had her warm, bleeding heart in his hands. Its red was more beautiful than anything he has ever seen before. It called to him, captured his full attention, lured him in completely—he just had to do something with it.

That’s when he discovered what it did for his power and strength.

It energized him, made him feel like he was on top of the world, and gave him a boost when he would have otherwise felt weaker after using his connection to the land for his own power, especially to the degree that he did. He loved it. It was perfect.

He wanted to feel it again.

Of course though, he wouldn’t take the hearts of his dear subjects just because he wanted this feeling. He was a good king above all else, even if he does behead people a lot. So though he wanted another heart to use, he needed to get it from a different place.

So began the cycle.

Every decade when the rabbit hole to the other world opens, he sends his good friend Hongjoong up. There, Hongjoong finds the next victim and leads them down the spiraling hole into Wonderland. The beginning of their end.

Each victim—whether boy or girl—is always called Alice by everyone they come to meet. It’s the king’s order and it makes it easier than to remember each new name so Alice it is. After enough people call them that, the visitor always comes to accept the name and go along with it.

On their journey, “Alice” is certain to run into a select few people. Three to six people—minus the king—to be exact.

First—as already stated—Hongjoong the White Rabbit. He appears every so often to make sure “Alice’s” curiosity is kept alive and fed. He acts as their end goal, every “Alice” wanting to catch up to him.

Next, they come to meet Choi San—otherwise known as The Cheshire Cat. San directs “Alice” and makes sure they are on their way to Seonghwa. He also keeps Seonghwa informed, letting him know what “Alice” is doing at each place and which road they took. He’s the eyes for everything and acts as a “guide” for the visitor.

If “Alice” takes the road through the forest, they’ll come to meet the wonderful Mad Hatter, Jeong Yunho, and his two companions Song Mingi the bright March Hare and Jung Wooyoung the adorable Dormouse. There they’ll have a tea party and Yunho will give “Alice” cake and tea laced with a drug that will make them less aware and more open to the madness around them. With their guard down, they won’t be clear-minded enough to see the danger once in the palace. From there, Hongjoong will appear again and lead “Alice” to their final destination where they’ll meet and play a game with the king himself.

If “Alice” takes the road to the chessboard, then they’ll meet Choi Jongho, the White Knight. He will act as a protection to them—seemingly the sanest character they have met in this eccentric world—and lead them to the “end” of the game. On the chessboard, “Alice” will eventually meet King Seonghwa but this time he is called the Red King, keeping the chess theme as they go to play their final game. 

And at the end—no matter which road they take—Seonghwa will win the game, much to “Alice’s” confusion. As they try to figure out how he did that, he will attack.

A new heart is then gained.

From there, he has a party with his six good friends to celebrate another success. He will be satisfied until the next decade when he can start the cycle all over again.

And thus is the story of this deceiving paradise. The King of Hearts is a stealer of hearts (in many meanings of this phrase if you understand) and an ender of stories. For visitors, following the white will only lead to red and so they’ll end.

For Wonderland though, this cycle is very good. Getting a new heart always makes the king happy—even happier than when he gets a new figure to build and decorate—and you know what they say: happy king, happy life. If he’s happy, the land flourishes (and fewer people are beheaded) so what is there not to like? Wonderland has seen some of its best decades since the king started this—why complain?

That is why when an “Alice” ever runs into a different citizen—like Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the Caterpillar, the Duchess, etc.—they go along with the story and bring the visitor further into the madness of it all until Hongjoong or San appears to lead them back on track. If it makes the king happy, then it’s good with them. Besides, though he doesn’t often throw his power around like this, he’s the king—what the king wants, the king gets. Who would be the fool to get in the way of that? Only one person has ever tried to get in the way for the laughs of it and let’s just say there is a reason why the Joker is not in the deck. No one messes with the cycle.

So to summarize, when you come to Wonderland, the King takes your heart. Grinning from ear to ear, the radiant ruby royal marches off with beautifully stained hands and a flourish to him like no other—while your colorless cold corpse lies forgotten and discarded, soon to be given as the Jabberwocky’s new toy. Short and simple.

Is this clearer for you? Do you understand now?

You do? Great!

Now, as we were saying; Wonderland, the familiarly odd paradise, where you can find unexpected twists and turns as easily as you can find flowers talking about the latest news in their abnormally colored fields. Here in this land, we—

Another question? What question could you possibly have after that?

The clouds?

Oh.

The clouds.

Perhaps...I may have misspoken slightly.

Yes, that is quite the question. You might want to get comfortable for the answer—because it is a ride.

This is the story of the day that cycle was broken…


	2. A troublesome Alice

“Where the hell am I?”

Yeosang dusts his pants off as he stands, taking in his surroundings. See, this is what happens when he runs only on caffeine for the past two days—he ends up following some strange dude and ends up who knows where. No common sense used whatsoever throughout that whole thing. Ugh once he’s back home, he’s going to make sure he sleeps.

First, he has to find his way home though.

“Excuse me, you are blocking the exit.”

Yeosang looks around at the sudden voice but he doesn’t spot anyone. That’s when he feels rapid taps on his foot and he looks down.

He steps back in a startle when he sees a tiny person at his foot.

It’s that rabbit guy.

“Thank you, I am behind schedule already—I must get going,” the male says.

Before Yeosang can even say anything in reply though, the unusual male scurries through a small mouse hole and out of sight.

“Hey wait!” Yeosang calls after him, snapping to his senses.

He bends down and looks through the mouse hole, trying to see where the rabbit fella is going. He is quite surprised to see a whole world on the other side, white ears and fluffy tail disappearing into the distance. 

“How the hell do I get out of here?” Yeosang mumbles.

He obviously can’t fit through the mouse hole but he needs to get out of whatever room he is in. What does he do?

“You’re much too big to go through there, silly Alice.”

Yeosang once again looks around to see where this new voice came from, already tired of all the sudden voices.

He looks up and—he kids you not—sees a doorknob with a face looking directly at him.

“Did you just say that?” He asks, slowly standing back up.

“Why of course! Do you see anyone else here?” The doorknob says.

And now he knows he’s going crazy. A talking doorknob. Right, okay.

“My name isn’t Alice. How do I get out of here though?” He says.

“You have to be smaller, duh! You’re not very bright, are you Alice?” The doorknob responds.

One, did he just get insulted by a doorknob? Never thought that could happen. Two, how in the world is he supposed to get smaller?

As if the doorknob could read his mind—he really hopes that’s not the case—it speaks again.

“Just drink up and you’ll go down. See what I did there? Ha, they don’t make them like me anymore,” it says.

Yeosang ignores that terrible joke and looks behind him. There, in a basket, he sees glass vials that say “drink me” on them. He picks up two of the five vials in the basket and looks them over. Is that what this doorknob is talking about?

“You want me to drink this? And it’s supposed to make me shrink?” He asks, looking back at the doorknob.

“Yup! Then out of this room you go,” it says.

Yeah, he doesn’t know how comfortable he is with the idea of drinking anything in a place where guys are part bunny and doorknobs talk. He also definitely does not like the idea of shrinking.

“Can’t you just open up? Aren’t you a door?” He says, putting the two vials in his pocket absentmindedly.

The doorknob, for once, does not have an immediate response. It almost looks like it wasn’t expecting that.

“Well I’m locked so down you must go,” it says after a bit.

Yeosang rolls his eyes. Of course the door is locked.

“So you’re locked and there’s no key I’m guessing,” he says.

“Nope!” The doorknob replies as if it was proud of itself.

Yeosang tries to think of a way out of this room without having to drink that weird thing. There must be another way out of here.

When there’s a locked door and no key, usually you either break down the door or pick the lock. He doesn’t want to...hurt (he guesses) the door though so he won’t kick it down as of yet. The keyhole looks like that’s its mouth so he is not sticking anything in there. There just has to be something else that he can do.

A random, probably stupid idea crosses his mind but hey, what does he has to lose?

He reaches out and with a single finger, he begins scratching the doorknob as if he was trying to tickle it.

To his great surprise, the knob actually begins to laugh.

“Hey hey quit it! I’m ticklish!” It says.

Yeosang can’t believe this—a ticklish doorknob. Just when you think you’ve seen it all.

But he puts that aside and continues to “tickle” the doorknob, trying to get it to laugh itself unlocked.

It laughs and hollers, struggling to catch its breath as he relentlessly tickles it. It wiggles around, trying to get away from him but to no use.

Eventually, a click can be heard and Yeosang turns the knob, successfully opening the door.

“Thank you, Mr. Door, time for me to go,” he says.

The doorknob stops laughing and looks at Yeosang in disbelief.

“Hey, you can’t do that!” It shouts.

But it’s too late—Yeosang is already out and on his way to find his way home out of this place.

“That Alice is different,” the doorknob mumbles.

Now suddenly in a forest, Yeosang looks around, trying to spot that rabbit guy so he can go home. The further he goes in though, the darker it becomes, the odd colored trees blocking out a lot of the sunlight. Fortunately, it’s just the right amount for him to see where he’s going at the very least.

The path seems to stretch on forever but he keeps his eyes open because that rabbit guy always pops up out of nowhere. That and he doesn’t know what’s going on here.

“Oh me, oh my, you’re quite the interesting guy.”

Yeosang groans and looks around, wondering what is it now.

“Don’t tell me the trees talk here too,” he says.

Laughter echoes throughout the forest at the comment.

“No no, but the flowers do. Ah but you’re a bit too big to go see those, Alice.”

Okay, where are they getting this Alice thing from? Is there a name tag on him or something that says his name is Alice?

“My name is Yeosang, not Alice. Now, who or what am I talking to right now exactly?” He replies.

A tut noise sounds back to him before a crescent moon grin suddenly appears above a tree branch in front of him. 

“You’re quite the feisty one,” the grin says.

Yeosang barely bats an eye at the sight. Nothing makes sense in this place huh?

“And you’re just teeth. Facts out of the way now, can I see all of you please, or are you just a floating grin?” Yeosang replies.

The grin widens—which Yeosang is sure is not physically possible—before a pair of feline eyes and cat ears join it. A purple tail followed by his arms. Soon, an entire person is there on the tree branch.

Body on backward.

“Oops, looks like I’m a bit twisted, don’t you say?” The character says.

He turns his body so it faces the right way, tail swaying upwards now amusedly.

“They call me the Cheshire Cat, pleased to meet you,” he says.

Yeosang looks him over, face as straight as can be.

“Great, another furry,” he says.

For the first time in his Cheshire Career, San is actually confused about what was said. What does that mean? He’s never gotten that response before. Shouldn’t this guy be asking what’s going on or where to go or anything like that?

He tries not to show his confusion as he speaks though.

“You speak strangely, Alice, I like that. Are you proficient in Gibberish perhaps?” He says, keeping his signature grin.

Yeosang, however, is not amused.

“My name isn’t Alice. But either way, this conversation is done, goodbye Mr. Cheshire,” he says.

He turns away from the cat guy and continues on his way down the dirt path. It’s already clear he won’t be having a clear conversation with that guy.

San, not expecting him to actually walk away, is caught frozen in his spot. He comes back to his senses though and fully registers that he is walking away. Walking away, completely aware, and heading in a direction not a part of the plan.

“Hey wait a minute,” he calls after him.

He disappears and reappears as a floating head in front of Yeosang.

“Where are you going? We just met, don’t you want to ask about me or something?” He says, looking at him with big kitty eyes.

Yeosang is unaffected though by the face the floating head is making.

“If I call you cute will it be enough to satisfy you?” He replies.

A yes almost comes out of San’s mouth—he loves being complimented—but then he remembers that this Alice didn’t drink the shrinking potion nor did he see any of the other Wonderland people because he was too big. He didn’t talk to the flowers or go down a river of tears or meet the caterpillar. And without him drinking the shrinking potion—which would have introduced his mind to the madness—he’s much too sane and sober. He has to do something to get this Alice on the right path.

“A fleeting compliment? What fun is that?” San replies, head turning upside-down as his tail—and only his tail—appears, right-side up.

Yeosang snorts. Just like a cat to want more. But, he doesn’t have time for this so forward he goes.

“Sorry, can’t help you then. Nice talking to you,” he says.

He steps around the floating head and continues on.

San can’t believe it, he was brushed off again! What is with this Alice? How could he follow Hongjoong down but not be curious about anything around him?

Hongjoong! That’s it, he’ll catch his attention using Hongjoong.

“Do you even know where you are heading?” He says.

He moves to a tree, following the Alice above head.

“No, but there’s only one way and that rabbit guy went this way so I’ll end up somewhere,” Yeosang replies.

San hangs upside-down on a branch, stopping Yeosang once again.

“Rabbit? I do love rabbits. Hard to catch though, no?” He says.

This one sure is, Yeosang will give him that.

“Very,” he responds.

San grins again, his ears floating off of his head.

“I can tell you which way he went—I saw him zipping by talking about being late. I may have nipped at him to raise his fur a bit,” he says.

Yeosang doesn’t know how much he trusts this character but it is better than walking around without the slightest clue.

“Alright, which way did he go?” He asks.

San internally cheers. He finally caught his interest. Now, he has to make a smart decision. This Alice is too aware and not easily fooled it seems so he’ll that needs to be fixed asap. He needs to spend more time around Wonderland people to get him more drawn in.

To Yunho then.

“He went thatta way,” he says, pointing at a new path, for the first time actually telling an Alice directly which way to go.

Yeosang raises an eyebrow, knowing he didn’t see that path there before.

“And what would you like for that information?” He asks, feeling that was a bit too easy.

San has to admit, this Alice is on his toes. That’s definitely new. But that will have to be broken one way or another.

“Tell me I’m pretty,” he says, fluttering his eyelashes.

Yeosang almost laughs in disbelief at the request. Didn’t he just say that he didn’t want a fleeting compliment? But it does seem like something this cat would ask of him. Alright then, he’ll go along with it.

“You are a very pretty kitty. Thank you for pointing out the direction,” he says.

San’s ever-present sharp grin flashes in the little light shining through the trees. He begins to disappear slowly until his smile is the only thing left.

“The best of the best and the prettiest left. Have fun on your journey.”

His smile fades away, leaving Yeosang all on his own.

He shakes his head and starts down the path that he was pointed to.

“This better take me somewhere useful,” he mumbles.

Above head, invisible to the eye, San watches intently. He doesn’t have a good feeling about that one. Not even the first Alice in all her snootiness ignored him. This Alice needs a change before he goes to Seonghwa.

“I need to tell Yunho.”

⧪⧪⧪⧪

Yeosang looks at the house in front of him.

“Oh this is going to be another looney one,” he sighs. 

But might as well go check it out. At the very least if he doesn’t find that rabbit, someone else can tell him which way to go.

So with that, he decides to follow the sounds of outlandish music to the backyard of the house.

He walks into a complete madhouse if you ask him.

“Another guest! How great!”

Before Yeosang can even process the spectacle around him, a tall man with a tall hat comes over to him with his long strides and gives him a bright smile.

“Well how do you do, how do you do? You’re just in time,” he says, grabbing both of Yeosang’s hands to shake too quickly and wildly for Yeosang’s preference.

“In time for what?” He asks.

The man goes behind him and starts pushing him to the long table, not even giving Yeosang a chance to fight back.

“Time for tea, of course. You’re just in time for tea time! Come come, take your seat,” the man says.

He leads Yeosang to a seat at the head of the table and sits him down, not caring that he knocks down a haphazardly stacked pile of teacups. For his own sanity, Yeosang goes along with it and stays seated as the man disappears into the house.

He looks at the table and sees two other people already seated and staring at him—a tall one with long rabbit ears and a shorter one with big mouse ears who looks a bit sleepy. With no one saying anything, Yeosang begins to wonder if he should speak up or sneak away.

Before he can do either, the guy with the big hat comes back, pushing a chaotically organized cart to them. Teacups, plates, sugar, spoons—everything is on the cart and somehow not falling.

“Who’s ready for tea? It’s a tea party. We can’t have a tea party without tea, now can we? No sir, that would be, well, mad hehe,” the guy says, laughing at a joke that Yeosang doesn’t see existing in that sentence.

The man begins to put down all of the cups and plates, giving the tiniest of cups to the tall guy and a gigantic cup to the smaller guy. He then places a cup and plate in front of Yeosang, the cup with its handle on the inside and the plate either having the oddest pattern or is actually broken.

“Uhh this is nice and all but who are you?” Yeosang speaks up.

  
The man—who was about to pour tea into the backwards cup—stops short as if that question was something shocking.

“Who am I? Oh, oh dear, I didn’t introduce myself. Where are my manners?” He says.

He places the teapot down on the table and takes off his hat. He sticks his hand into it, seemingly searching for something.

“Nope, nope, nope, no biting, nope, nope—ah here it is,” he says, face lighting up when he finds what he’s looking for. He pulls his arm out of the hat and holds up a small card that says “manners” in fancy cursive.

“My manners,” he shows off proudly.

Not even a second into showing it, he tosses it behind him and does an extravagant bow.

“The Hatter, or Hatter for short—pleasure to meet you. Mad Hatter if you ask friends but you know what they say: colorberry, treecone,” he says. 

No, Yeosang has never heard that saying before. He’s pretty sure “Mad Hatter” is correct.

The Hatter straightens up suddenly and puts his hat back on his head. He turns to the other two at the table and gestures to them. 

“The tall one is our favorite March Hare—hare not rabbit, two different species did you know? Oh you must hear about that story later. Anyway, the smaller one is our Dormouse—isn’t he the cutest, his ears are too big for his head but don’t tell him that I said that,” he chuckles.

Said person turns his head up offended.

“I heard that!” He exclaims.

“Heard what?” Hatter says, smiling innocently, causing the Dormouse to cross his arms with a huff.

Yeosang looks between the two at the interaction and the idea to sneak away is once again in his mind and sounding good right about now.

The Hatter turns back to Yeosang—almost as if he knew what he was thinking—with that same smile.

“How about you, Alice, did you hear anything?” He says, giving him a wink.

And once again he is called Alice. Yeosang is beginning to think that must be some name they use for any stranger because he doesn’t know how in the world they are looking at him and calling him Alice.

“My name is Yeosang. While this is cool, can you tell me which way the white rabbit dude went? That Cheshire Cat said he went this way,” Yeosang says.

The Dormouse pops up, his eyes the widest they have been so far.

“CAT?!” He shrieks.

Before he can run around like an animal with no head, though, the March Hare fellow quickly grabs him.

“No no, he said the uh Meshmire Hat, yeah that. It’s a new hat Hatter got. Alice thinks a hat can talk, isn’t that silly?” He says, clearly lying out of his mouth. There’s no way anyone could believe that.

But to Yeosang’s surprise, the Dormouse calms down immediately and turns back to Yeosang, pointing his finger and laughing at the idea.

“A talking hat? You’re so crazy Alice,” he laughs.

Yeosang stares in disbelief. He’s seen a doorknob talk to him and apparently flowers can talk too but yet a talking hat is somehow farfetched in this world? Yes, he is so crazy.

The Hatter leans in toward Yeosang and whispers to him, “We don’t say the K-A-T word here—it scares him.”

Disregarding how that was just spelled, Yeosang guesses he’ll go with it. At least it makes sense that a mouse would be afraid of a cat. The only thing that has made sense here.

“Alright then, do you know which way the white rabbit person went?” He says, wanting to get back on track.

The Hatter leans back and rubs his chin in thought.

“White rabbit person? Hmmm, let me think.” He pulls out a cup of tea from seemingly nowhere and sips it as he thinks. “Does this fellow have long ears, a white fluffy tail, a pocket watch, and a cute little face always babbling about time?” He asks.

Yeosang nods in response. At least they’re talking about the same person, that’s a good start.

“Nope don’t know him!” The Hatter chirps, throwing the teacup behind him in the process.

Yeosang groans and almost bangs his head on the table. He stops himself though and decides to take a different approach.

“Do you know The White Rabbit then?” He asks, guessing that that could be the rabbit dude’s name considering everyone else he’s met.

The Hatter pops up eagerly, recognition in his eyes.

“The White Rabbit? Oh of course I know him! Why didn’t you just ask for him first? He’s coming over soon,” he says.

Yeosang gives a tight-lipped smile. He needs to get out of here.

“Really? When will he be here?” He says instead of the other words he had in his mind.

“He’ll be here at…” The Hatter pulls up his sleeve, revealing an armful of watches on him—all of them seeming busted—to check the time. His eyes light up though and Yeosang has a feeling that his question will not be answered.

The Hatter turns on his heels and walks back to the house with a hum and a spring in his step.

“I can’t win, can I?” Yeosang gripes.

The March Hare and Dormouse chuckle at his comment.

“Win? What game are you playing, Alice? It’s a tea party, there are no games,” The March Hare says.

“My name is Yeosang, not Alice, and really, I should be asking what game you all are playing because this is the strangest of tea parties I have ever seen,” Yeosang replies without missing a beat.

The two look at him with slight surprise, not having expected that response. They’ve never heard anyone switch the question back on them. Can he really tell that they’re playing a game or is he just saying that?

Fortunately for them, The Hatter comes back holding an abnormal amount of slices of cake—even balancing one plate on the top of his hat.

“It’s tea time!” He cheers.

He walks straight to Yeosang, putting down all of the slices in front of him. Without even wasting a second, he grabs the teapot still on the table and pours multiple cups of hot tea, all seemingly for Yeosang.

“Tea and cake, cake and tea—shall we begin our party?” He grins.

He pushes a plate of cake closer to Yeosang.

“Try it, it’s the best recipe in all the land. Oops don’t say that too loud though,” he titters.

Yeosang looks down at the cake with a raised eyebrow. It looks normal—no wildness to it unlike everything else—but he still doesn’t trust anything in this world.

“I’m okay, thank you. Is the White Rabbit coming soon?” He says instead.

The Hatter pops up, tilting his head in confusion.

“No cake? But what will you have with your tea? Ooo maybe cake-flavored tea then? I have that,” he says, mood doing a complete 180 in the middle of his sentence.

He takes off his hat again and goes digging through it. He magically pulls out a new teapot along with a cup and plate set—leaving Yeosang to wonder what the hell is up with that hat—and pours him a new cup of tea.

“Here we go, a fresh cup of cake tea—the best cake tea you can have if I do say so myself,” he says, holding out the cup to him.

The March Hare and Dormouse raise their own cups happily.

“Cake tea!” They cheer, clinking cups before taking sips of their drink.

But despite the happy reactions to the insane flavored tea, Yeosang still isn’t biting.

“Yeah, no thank you. I’m sure it’s great but I’m not really in the mood for tea,” he says.

For a fraction of a second, The Hatter’s smile turns tight, his jaw twitching slightly before it becomes natural again.

“It’s not a tea party without tea though. You must have tea or else it’d... it’d just be a party! No no no, not a party—a tea party. It’s tea time, see?” He says, pulling up his sleeve again and showing all his watches. Each watch undoubtedly points to the words “Tea Time” on the faces. “So we drink tea at tea time, that makes sense, yes?” He pushes the tea towards Yeosang again.

Yeosang politely pushes the cup away though. He’s probably committing some tea crime to this crazy hatter but he is not risking anything by eating or drinking anything here. If they have potions that can make him shrink then he’s sure that even the “normal” stuff can do some crazy things to him.

“I’m fine, really. Now, you said the White Rabbit is coming here? If not, I should be on my way,” he says, pushing himself out of the seat.

The Hatter completely drops the cup and plate in his hand and quickly grabs Yeosang by the arm. Yeosang looks at the hand on him before looking back up to be greeted with an even wider smile.

“The White Rabbit? Is that who you’re waiting for? Why didn’t you say so earlier, silly boy? He’s coming over for our tea party. You have to be clearer with your questions, Alice. Sit sit, let’s talk while we wait,” he says, letting go of Yeosang and taking a seat himself.

Yeosang would like to say that was really unusual behavior but unfortunately, this Hatter fits his name: Mad. He doesn’t know what is normal for this guy other than he seems to really like tea. But if he says the White Rabbit will be coming here then he will take his chance and wait a bit longer. It’s not like he knows where he’s going anyway. If it gets any weirder though, he’s gone.

So he slowly sits back down.

“My name’s not Alice,” he says just to give a response but staying on the alert here.

Unbeknownst to him, however, Yunho makes a gesture under the table, telling their invisible watcher an important message.

Go to the king.

♣♦♠♥

San appears in the rose garden.

“Ah San, back already I see.”

The red monarch sits, practically glowing in the warm sunlight and beautiful red surroundings, sipping on his own cup of tea—feeling inspired to have some after being told that their visitor went to Yunho’s house.

San bows, causing Seonghwa to raise an eyebrow.

“You’re nervous. You only bow to me when something is wrong—what happened?” He says, calmly taking another sip of his tea.

San curses his nervous tendencies for always giving him away but now’s no time to focus on that.

“It’s about the Alice. He’s...well, he’s different,” he says.

“Different how?” Seonghwa asks.

San plays with hands slightly, his tail swaying behind him anxiously. He well knows that their king does not like when things get in the way of him getting a heart. He doesn’t really know if this counts but considering that this has never happened before, he has reason to be nervous.

“Well he’s not being fooled. He didn’t take the shrinking potion, he’s refusing to accept being called Alice, he walked away from me twice, he’s not eating or drinking anything Yunho is offering him, and he even asked Mingi and Wooyoung what game they were playing because the tea party seemed too strange—he’s just so different,” San says in quick succession, knowing that either way Seonghwa will understand what he’s saying.

And understand he does.

Seonghwa gently puts his cup down on the table in front of him and looks up to San completely.

“How many people has he met?” He asks.

“Including or excluding the doorknob?” San replies, causing Seonghwa to raise an eyebrow again.

“Excluding.”

San kicks at the ground before mumbling out, “five.”

Seonghwa’s eyes widen slightly, not expecting such a low number.

“Five? Three of them are at the tea party so are you telling me that the other two are you and Hongjoong?” He says.

San nods in response.

Seonghwa hums at that. Certainly this Alice really is different. Different could be a problem—if he lets it become one.

“What is he doing now?” He asks.

“Yunho is trying to keep him at the house—they’re waiting for Hongjoong to appear,” San responds.

Seonghwa swirls the red tea around in thought.

“Alright then, have Hongjoong go to the house and then lead him to Jongho. Let’s see if Jongho can break through his walls a bit before he meets me,” he says.

An Alice who meets all seven of them? That would certainly be a first.

“But he’s nowhere near the chessboard…”

San’s voice fades away as his keen eyes spot the prickles on the roses grow more prominent in between the leaves, a sign that the Wonderland king is definitely coming up with a plan to handle this Alice. 

When he sees a smile come onto the royal’s face, he almost fears for the new Alice. Almost.

“Bring Jongho closer then. Have him be the Knave of Hearts who is leading him to my party. Once he’s with Jongho, the rest of you come here as well so it can be a nice little gathering with the eight of us. There will be no way he can escape even if he isn’t affected by the madness,” Seonghwa says happily as if it was the simplest thing.

He snickers to himself thinking about the beautiful red heart he’ll soon have. He’s never failed at getting one and he will not start now. He just has to be patient and then he’ll have his favorite thing in the world.

He suddenly stands up, startling San slightly. He steps closer to his friend and cutely boops his nose—San going cross-eyed for a second watching it. He laughs again at the sight before turning around and walking away, cloak swaying as he moves, going to go prepare for his “party”. A party that will end with the best gift ever.

A rose is plucked from its bush and he places it in his hair, sharp points and all, humming a happy tune. This will be so much fun. It will go his way just like it’s supposed to.

He will have that Alice’s heart.

♜♝♞♟

“Now where did that rabbit go?”

Yeosang sighs as he looks around for the White Rabbit who was just right in front of him. He finally got away from that madhouse, so close to that elusive rabbit, and somehow he STILL loses sight of him. How is that even possible?

He just wants to go home, is that too much to ask for? He is so tired of this world and he’s only met like five people—four really because he hasn’t gotten a word in with that rabbit. Either way, it’s really time for him to go home.

“Hello there.”

Yeosang turns around—this close to losing it at all of these sudden voices. He is surprised when he immediately sees a person behind him. A regular person—no funny ears, weird hats, or anything like that. He’s dressed in white and red, the symbol of a heart all over his clothes. He has a sword on his hip, tying the ensemble together and telling Yeosang that this must be a knight of some sort.

“I am the Knave of Hearts, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Alice,” the guy says, giving a polite bow.

The Knave is clearly young but Yeosang decides to ignore that fact for now.

“My name is Yeosang but isn’t a knave an insult?” Yeosang replies.

He didn’t care much about his classic literature class but he’s pretty sure that a knave is not a wanted title.

“I do not know. A knave is a knight here or a jack—is that a more common term for you? I am the Jack of Hearts, servant to the king. I am here to escort you,” the Jack replies, bowing again.

Escort him? Yeosang doesn’t know where he’s supposed to be heading to but he will say that so far, this person is the most normal one he’s met so far—and that doesn’t sit right with him.

“Where are you taking me to?” Yeosang asks.

“To the royal palace for his highness’ party. You have an invitation,” the Jack replies, pointing to Yeosang’s pocket.

Yeosang goes in his pocket and pulls out a folded paper heart that he knows wasn’t there before. Either someone put it in his pocket or things magically appear in places. After dealing with that hatter’s hat, he can sadly say both are very plausible ideas.

“See, an invitation from his highness himself. So I’m going to escort you there since it was figured that you would lose the White Rabbit—he sometimes forgets that people are following him when he’s in a rush,” the Jack says.

Was that what was going on? Was the rabbit supposed to be leading him to the palace? Can he go home from the palace? He’s not here for any parties. Honestly he doesn’t know why he’s here, he just wants to not be here.

“You look like you have questions. All questions can be asked to the king, he knows everything about the land,” the Jack says, reading Yeosang’s facial expressions.

It succeeds in catching Yeosang’s attention admittedly. If this king or whatever knows everything about the land then maybe he can tell him how to get home. It’s worth a shot, he guesses.

“Alright then, lead the way to the palace,” he replies.

The Jack nods and begins to walk in a direction Yeosang would have never thought to travel in—Yeosang following behind him.

It’s silent for a little, Yeosang walking straight ahead, not even giving his surroundings much of a glance. 

Jongho watches this from the corner of his eye, never having seen an Alice who didn’t look around at their surroundings. Everyone gets lost in the bizarreness of this world—why isn’t this Alice affected at all? How does he keep his guard up all the time?

Jongho decides to break the silence, wanting to try his hand at getting this Alice to slip up.

“Do you have your gift for his highness?” He asks.

Yeosang turns to look at him, confused at the question.

“My gift?” He replies.

Jongho nods, glad he at least got his attention.

“Yes, your gift. You must have a gift when showing up to a royal party. It makes his highness very happy and more open to questions and requests. No gift means he will be upset and find you to be disrespectful,” he says, playing on this Alice’s want to find out some answers apparently.

Yeosang sighs. Of course this wouldn’t be straightforward and simple. He needs a way home though and this king seems like his best bet to get that. Fine, it looks like he has to get a gift.

“No, I don’t have one. What does the king like?” Yeosang says.

“He likes red and hearts,” the Jack replies simply.

Yeosang doesn’t know how that helps him much though. What the heck is he supposed to get in this crazy place that is red and or heart-shaped?

“Do you have any ideas on what I could give as a gift?” He decides to ask instead of racking his brain.

It’d be terrible if he got a gift that would offend the monarch, now wouldn’t it? Might as well make sure this is a good gift so he can just go home.

“There is a fruit his highness really likes—they’re red and they’re shaped like hearts. You can get him that,” Jongho says.

A heart-shaped fruit? You know what, Yeosang will go with it.

“Where do I get them from?” Yeosang asks.

“We will be passing a field of them shortly if you would like to stop there. I do hope you’re good at singing though,” Jongho responds.

Yeosang gives him a look of confusion. What does singing have to do with fruits?

“The way to get them off the tree is to sing to them. If you sing well, then the sweet ones will fall off the tree. If you sing badly, the sour ones will fall. His highness does not like the sour ones so I do hope you can sing,” the Jack explains to him.

Why is Yeosang not surprised that there was a catch to this fruit stuff? Nothing is ever normal here—what else could he expect honestly? Which is why he is wondering what’s this Jack’s deal. He’s too normal to be a character from this world if you ask him.

“I guess we’ll find out,” Yeosang mumbles, just wanting to get this over with.

Whether the Jack heard it or not, Yeosang doesn’t know and he doesn’t really care as long as they’re on their way. The sooner they get this over with the better.

Back into silence they fall as they continue on their way.

Jongho does not miss the way that the Alice keeps glancing over to him slightly from the corner of his eye. He doesn’t trust him. Well what do you know, what San said was correct—this one really is different. But different or not, he knows Seonghwa will make sure he wins in the end so it’ll be okay. All he has to do is make sure he does his best to expose him to as much madness as he can on their walk there and then the rest is in their king’s hands.

They continue to walk, neither saying anything to the other but Yeosang not letting down his guard in the slightest. Jongho has to commend the Alice for being a smart one at the very least. He would do well on the chessboard.

Finally, they come to the intended field.

Rows and rows of tall trees stand before them, all with beautiful red heart-shaped fruits hanging from them.

“Here we are. Pick a basket from the basket plant and then you can collect the fruit,” Jongho says.

Yeosang turns around to see a bush with baskets literally hanging from it. The question of how one grows a basket gets pushed down because no, he doesn’t really want to know.

So he picks one of the small wooden baskets growing so he can get this over with.

“Now all you have to do is pick a tree and sing to it. You should try to collect a few, his highness really likes these,” Jongho instructs.

Yeosang sighs and walks over to a tree. He looks up, debating if he should just climb the tree instead but eventually decides against it. Who knows what craziness could happen if he tries to climb up.

“I just have to sing?” Yeosang asks to confirm.

Jongho nods in response. “Preferably sing nicely if you want to make a good impression on his highness.”

Once again, Yeosang says that this Jack seems a bit too normal for his comfort—go figure—but he guesses he’ll focus on that later. For now, he just has to get those fruits.

Here goes nothing he guesses.

With a deep breath, he begins to sing, deep voice nice and melodious. He feels like a fool but he’ll do what he has to.

To his slight surprise, he notices that the fruits begin to shake on the trees. What do you know?

It’s right when the first fruit falls does he realize that he’ll have to catch them with the basket—quickly moving forward to catch the fruit from hitting the ground.

He continues to catch all of the falling fruit, doing his best to keep his voice stable while doing so. He really hopes none of these are getting bruised from the fall or this would be a waste.

When he thinks that he has enough, he stops singing.

Looking over the fruits, he asks, “How do I know if they’re sweet or not?”

Jongho, seeing this as a chance to try this Alice again, responds in the logical way.

“Try one and see,” he says.

Yeosang gives one of the fruits a distrustful look. He’s already made up his mind not to eat or drink anything in this place—these fruits are no different.

“Guess I’ll just hope they’re sweet,” he decides with a shrug.

“But what if they aren’t? His highness really does not like sour things—he will be quite upset with you if they aren’t sweet. You only need to try one—you’ll still have enough,” Jongho says, politely pushing the matter.

Yeosang wonders what’s with everyone and trying to get him to eat/drink the weird stuff here. The only one who hasn’t was that cat—but then again, he didn’t give him the time to. Something just isn’t right.

“I’ll take that chance then. Can we get going now? Don’t want to be late, right?” He responds.

Ah, Jongho can see how this one made Yunho almost falter—he’s annoyingly set in his idea to avoid eating anything. He thinks this heart will be the most satisfying to see taken. It’ll make up for all of this struggle.

“Very well then, we will continue to the palace,” Jongho says.

Yeosang raises an eyebrow at how easily the Jack agreed to drop the matter. He really hopes this king can tell him how to get home because this place is not good for his head. Too much that just doesn’t make sense and too much setting off his internal “something isn’t right” alarm. After all of this, he is so never complaining about the weird stuff back home.

They start walking again, silence filling the area once more as they continue their journey to the palace.

Yeosang can guess when they are getting close to the palace on his own, seeing the scenery turn red and black with different card suit shapes everywhere. Considering that the Jack is the Jack of Hearts and this king apparently likes hearts and red, he’s guessing that there is a card theme going on here.

“Does the king’s full title happen to be the King of Hearts?” He asks.

The Jack nods in response.

“You pay attention well, Alice,” he says.

“Is that the only name you all know?” Yeosang can’t help but ask.

There’s no way he could tell them his name all of this time and they _still_ call him Alice. Either they only know one name or they are doing this on purpose.

“We are only calling you by your name,” the Jack replies.

Yeah, sure they are. He’s leaning more towards them doing this on purpose like every other crazy thing in this world. The conversation drops there and the two continue on their way.

At long last, they finally reach the palace.

It’s almost as you would think a palace would look like—grand, pristine, and royal. Off of first look, you can see a lot of red going on, which does make sense since the king of the world is the King of Hearts. Continuing the theme that he saw early on, the card suit shaped items run strong throughout the scenery of the palace. He guesses getting red heart-shaped fruit was a pretty good idea.

They enter the palace and Jongho leads him straight to the throne room where he will finally meet the talked about king.

Yeosang has no trouble identifying the royal.

A man adorned in red and black sits on the throne, a beautiful smile on his face. Unlike where the rest of the palace has all the card suits, he only has hearts on his outfit—fitting for his title. The crown contrasts perfectly against his dark wavy hair. 

Yeosang hates to admit it but the man is breathtaking.

“Introducing his illustriousness, magnificent ruler of our wonderful land, the King of Hearts,” Jongho announces, staying in proper character.

The monarch stands with flourish, his cloak moving fluidly with him. He walks over to the two, giving Yeosang a welcoming smile.

“Hello there. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Alice,” the king says.

Yeah, it’s official—they are definitely calling him that on purpose.

“It’s nice to meet you too, your highness. I’m Y—”

A nudge in the back cuts off his words and he turns to see the Jack standing behind him, looking ahead as if nothing happened but clearly the one who hit him.

It seems that the red monarch didn’t notice though—or didn’t care to say anything about it—just watching the two with a warm smile.

“I’m so happy that you could make it to my party,” he says, gleefully.

At that, Yeosang, remembering the basket in his hands, holds out his gift to the king.

“Thank you for inviting me. I brought you these. I’m not very familiar with them but I heard that you like them,” he replies, using his best manners so as to make a good impression on this king. He just needs to go home.

The king takes the basket, happy to see his favorite fruit inside.

“Oh these are wonderful! Thank you for your gift. Come now, let’s go to the others and begin this party,” he says.

He gestures for Yeosang to follow him out of the room. Yeosang does so, Jongho following behind him—the three of them heading down the hall and to a new room where the day’s event will be taking place.

When they enter the festively decorated room, Yeosang almost groans, catching himself at the last second.

“Alice is here!”

The ever-familiar Mad Hatter shouts cheerfully at the sight of Yeosang walking in the room. Next to him is none other than the March Hare and the Dormouse—three people Yeosang feels he’s spent enough time around.

Before he can say anything, a pair of furry ears appear in front of the mouse-like creature, scaring him greatly.

“CAT!” He shrieks.

He’s out of his seat and running around frantically, the Hatter and the Hare trying to catch him and calm him down.

A grin appears in front of Yeosang, confirming to him which person this is.

“Glad you could make it, Alice. I was almost certain you’d get lost,” the grin says.

Yeosang, still unimpressed with the mischievous cat, just nods.

“I guess I was fortunate,” he responds.

The cat laughs, his full body appearing. His tail waves in the air amusedly as he looks over Yeosang with those crazy eyes.

“Lucky boy,” he says, his words sounding like they’re holding something else to them.

Yeosang decides not to respond. Instead, he turns to the one person he’s been after this entire time.

The White Rabbit.

The small rabbit-person sits with his own cup of tea, checking his watch repeatedly. When the needle hits a certain number, he takes a sip. Yeosang thinks he is timing when to drink his tea but at this point, he has seen weirder things.

“So all of these guys were invited to your party, yes?” Yeosang asks the king.

The king nods. “They do make for an interesting celebration. You and the Knave of Hearts are our last guests. Now, we can begin!” He walks further into the room, happily enjoying the sights around him.

Yeosang, watching the king carry on as if none of this was strange, concludes that the ruler must be as crazy as this land is, despite seeming so normal as of now. He also concludes that these people seriously wasted his time if they were all going to end up in the same place together. Well, the cat wasted his time. That Hatter can’t even think past tea for one question so he won’t hold this against him.

He walks after the king, trying to catch him before any nonsense happens. After all, he isn’t here to party—he just wants to find a way out of here.

“Excuse me, your highness,” he calls.

His majesty turns around at the call, facing Yeosang completely with that same smile on.

“How may I help you?” He says.

Now with his attention on him, Yeosang gets the idea that maybe he should find a way to ask that doesn’t make it sound like he hates it here. If sour fruits are enough to offend the monarch then saying that he would like to leave this party asap can probably come across as rude too. Rather not anger his only chance to get home.

“Well you see, I have a really important job to get done back at home and it has a time limit so I was hoping that you could tell me how exactly I could go back after your party,” he says, trying to create an excuse that even these looney people could understand.

That white rabbit is always talking about time so hey maybe it’ll work for him. And he isn’t saying that he wants to leave right now—though he really does—so it can’t sound like he hates this “party”.

“Hmm, you want to go home, do you?” The king muses. An amused gleam crosses through his eyes and a smirk touches his lips. “How about a deal then? You and I play a game. If you win, I’ll tell you how to go home. But if you lose, you’re all on your own. Do we have a deal?”

Play a game? Why does Yeosang just know that it’s not going to be that simple? But it does give him a chance to finally find a way out of here. What does he have to lose at this point in this wild ride? It’s better than nothing.

“Alright, sure, I’ll play a game with you,” he says.

The king’s smirk widens into a grin and for a second, Yeosang feels like he just sold his soul. He doesn’t have time to focus on it though because the monarch speaks immediately after, cutting off his train of thought.

“Great! I do love a good game,” he says.

He walks away, gesturing for Yeosang to follow him. Yeosang does so and they are led over to a small table, two chairs already ready for them. As he takes a seat, he notices the other guests crowding around them—a respectful distance being maintained though since it is the king. He guesses they’ll be watching them play.

“Since you are my special guest for today, I will let you choose the game. Cards? Croquet? Chess? Whatever you would like,” The king says.

If there’s one thing that Yeosang has come to learn about this world, it’s that nothing is as it seems. Everything is backward here so if the king of the land is letting him choose the game then there has to be a catch somewhere. That means he should choose wisely.

He can’t think of a game off the top of his head so he might as well just choose from the three options. 

He’s pretty okay at a few card games but “cards” can be any game and he doesn’t know if the king would be so kind to let him choose that as well. He has never played croquet—or even seen it for that matter—so that’s definitely out of the picture. He doesn’t play chess often but he isn’t terrible at it. So play cards and risk not being able to pick which game or play chess though it’s not his strongest game?

Well at least with chess, it’s logical no matter which way you slice it. There always has to be some type of thought process involved in order to win so no matter what, he should be able to stand a chance. Besides, the king is literally called the King of Hearts. He has a feeling that even if he could pick the card game, the king would have the advantage considering that his theme is cards.

“Chess. Let’s play chess,” he says.

The decision doesn’t get much of a reaction from the king, almost as if he was confident in any game that could have been chosen. Not very comforting for Yeosang but okay.

“Very well then, we’ll play chess,” the king says. He then turns to the hatter. “Hatter, may we have a chessboard please?”

The crazy hatter that Yeosang has unfortunately spent more than enough time with steps forward, bowing to the king. Then he takes off that unpredictable hat of his and goes rummaging through it. He easily pulls out a chessboard, setting it down on the table. He pulls out two pouches immediately after—one red, one white. He hands the red one to the king and the white one to Yeosang, stepping back and going back to his spot afterward.

Yeosang opens the pouch and sees the chess pieces he’s supposed to play with.

He takes them out and begins to set up his side—the king doing the same as well. He keeps an eye on how the king sets up his pieces, relieved when it’s set up the exact way Yeosang knows. Good, so they’ll actually be playing chess.

Now he just has to get through the game.

With all of the pieces set up, Yeosang moves to start the game.

He is startled though when the king stops him with a chuckle.

“Silly Alice, red always goes first,” he says as if that was basic sense.

Yeosang raises an eyebrow in slight confusion—knowing very well that white always goes first in chess regularly. He guesses he shouldn’t be surprised though since red is this king’s theme and this world is backward. Of course the king would go first.

“My apologies. Go ahead,” he says.

The king nods with a hum and goes to move his first piece.

Yeosang isn’t surprised when the king moves one of his center pawns, remembering the multiple times he’s been told that it’s best to control the center of the board. So this crazy place _does_ follow some logic. Good to know.

He follows suit, moving one of his center pawns as well, truly setting this game into motion.

The opening movements of the pawns continue for about three turns. Yeosang keeps his eyes open, watching the board carefully. For all he knows, this king could be a Grandmaster or something. Or knowing this world, the chess pieces will probably start flying off the board any moment now. Something is bound to happen, he just knows it.

Oh, if only he knew how soon it would be.

He picks up his knight, ready to move it to try to advance in this game.

He was not expecting to be stopped.

“That’s not how a knight moves, my dear boy,” the king says.

Yeosang looks up in confusion and surprise, turning to see the king calmly sipping a cup of tea—that suddenly appeared but that’s not the point—looking at him as if he was a small child about to do something silly.

What does he mean by that? Of course the knight moves this way. He’s no chess prodigy but he does know how the pieces move.

As if he could read his thoughts, though, the king sets down the tea to speak again.

“This is Wonderland, Alice—you play by my rules now. Knights do not move in that fashion. However, you’ve already touched that piece so you must move it,” the king says.

No surprise, they’re using crazy rules. Why would Yeosang ever think that they’d play using normal rules? Clearly he didn’t learn as much about this place as he thought.

“Then how does a knight move?” He asks.

His answer does not come from the king as he would have liked.

“On a horse of course—don’t you see the piece?” the Dormouse speaks up on the side of him as if it was so obvious. He turns to the March Hare. “He’s not very bright, is he?”

The Hare—and the rest of them, _including_ the king—shakes his head no in response. Yeosang bites his tongue, taking a deep breath in. They don’t make sense to him, he doesn’t make sense to them—that’s all it is and that’s all he’s going to say to himself. For now.

“You’re not going to tell me how it moves, are you?” he says.

The king sips his tea again with an amused smile.

“Though this is only a friendly game, it is not wise to help your opponent. I’m sure you can figure it out. I don’t mind if you take a while to move,” he says.

Yeosang sighs. Nothing is ever easy, is it?

With nothing else to do, he decides to just guess for now.

He hesitantly places down the knight in a random square not too far out so as to hopefully not set himself up to be captured. Maybe it’s the direction he was going in? The king shakes his head no though, telling him the spot is invalid. So he tries again. And again.

Finally, he places the knight on a square that receives a nod from the monarch.

“Well done,” the king says, casually moving his next piece in a way that just doesn’t make sense to Yeosang at all. It’s almost as if the royal doesn’t even have to think about it.

Yeosang will really need to pull a spectacular game to win this.

He tries again with another piece—queenside bishop.

Before he can even pick it up though, he is stopped yet again.

“That piece has nowhere to go. It’s blocked in, don’t you see?” The king says, his tone slightly showing his amusement at the mistake.

Yeosang lets go of the piece, choosing not to focus on the tone and think this through. 

So the bishop can’t jump over pieces and the pawns seem to move like normal so this can’t be too wild. He just has to find out how they actually _do_ move.

He picks up the other bishop and tries to move it. It takes him two wrong moves before he finally gets it on the right space. Almost immediately after though, the king moves his piece like it’s child's play, not allowing him to see close enough how it moved.

This is how the game continues—Yeosang guessing where his pieces go while the king easily plays. The monarch seems to be barely paying attention—calm and confidence radiating off of his very being. And the moment Yeosang’s first piece is taken, Yeosang knows that this is going to be much harder than he thought.

The king chuckles as he takes another white piece off the board, this one being none other than Yeosang’s queen.

“Dearest Alice, why would you choose a game you do not know how to play? I thought you said you wanted to go home? Was this all just a ploy so you can play a game with me for my party?” He says lightheartedly, daintily chuckling at the idea.

On the inside though, Seonghwa is smugly smirking, loving to see the frustration that the other is trying to hide. This Alice may have caused the others problems but he will not allow that here. He is always in control—no stubborn visitor will get in his way.

Yeosang does his best not to show his irritation at the comment, choosing to focus on the board instead. There just has to be a pattern to this, he knows it. The pieces can’t just be moving any way they want or else he wouldn’t have gotten so many squares wrong. He just needs to figure out the pattern. He needs to slow down and think this out.

It is confirmed that pawns move like normal—only going forward and can only capture diagonally. Before he lost his queen, he’s pretty sure that was moving normally as well so he should still watch out for the red queen. He knows that his queen was just captured with a rook and the rook didn’t move as it usually does so now the question is how _did_ it move? It didn’t go in a straight line of any type—straight or diagonal—so maybe it’s like the knight where it can go in a shape of some sort. He should test it out to see.

He picks up his rook and decides to move it in the knight’s usual L shape. He looks up to see if the square is a valid spot or not.

The king hums.

“A good guess, my boy. I guess you are lucky,” he says, moving his piece.

Yeosang silently cheers—another piece added to this unusual puzzle. So the rook moves in an L shape as far as he can see. He has to test it out again to make sure it wasn’t only a one-time thing. If the pattern stays then there’s hope that this game isn’t as random as he thought.

Back and forth the two play, Seonghwa advancing toward the white king, taking piece after piece off of the board and limiting Yeosang’s chances. But on Yeosang’s end, he’s watching carefully how each piece is moved and finally seeing their pattern. It’s not as random as the king tried to make it seem. In fact, it’s actually pretty logical for a game in this world.

The pieces aren’t just moving however they want—the king just switched their roles.

So the rook moves like a knight, the knight moves like a bishop, and the bishop moves like a rook. All the other pieces move how they normally do. Once he gets it out of his head what the pieces normally do, it’s not as confusing anymore.

Seonghwa discreetly raises an eyebrow, noticing the spark of understanding in his visitor’s eyes. So he figured out how the pieces moved—he guesses the boy really would have done well on the chessboard if he went Jongho’s route. But that’s no matter—it just makes the game more interesting. Not only does he have more pieces on the board—stronger pieces at that—he has never lost a game of chess before. Croquet, darts, sparring, and even a card game (one purely based on luck that he has since then forbidden for it to be played) he has all lost at before—and he was **_not_ ** happy—but chess he always wins at. He is the King of Hearts and the Red King, he doesn’t lose at his own games. He practically lives on the chessboard on many occasions—it is not possible for him to lose.

So he takes great pleasure in still capturing the white pieces even after the Alice has learned how the pieces move. Granted, he does start to lose a few more on his own but it’s nothing compared to his opponent. Soon, he will win this game.

And when he does and the boy is trying to figure out how that worked or trying to find another way to be told a way home, he’ll strike. Even without the Alice being exposed to the normal amount of madness, he’ll still be able to catch him off guard and take his heart. That magnificent bleeding heart will finally be his after all of this trouble. Oh, he can already feel its warmth in his hands. It’s been a decade since he’s last felt that crimson warmth—only a bit longer and he’ll have it again.

Yeosang, unaware of the king’s thoughts, is extremely focused on finding a way to win. He sees how close the monarch’s pieces are coming to his unprotected king—a risky move but it has a reason—and he only has so many more pieces he can sacrifice to slow them down. He has to pull this off smartly or else he’ll definitely lose. Fortunately for him though, the king seems to be more focused on setting up his own win than worrying about the few pieces that are still on the board. That means if he plays this right, he can sneak in a win from behind.

The thought is confirmed when he captures a seemingly insignificant piece.

He can do this.

Seonghwa can’t help the smile that comes to his face when he gets another piece in the perfect position. Only a handful more moves and he’ll have the white king in checkmate. He’s so close to getting his reward, yes! Minus the king, there are only three white pieces left, two of them being pawns. This will be such a satisfying win.

“Checkmate.”

Seonghwa is snapped out of his thoughts at the word.

“I beg your pardon?” He says, voice taking on a slight incredulous pitch.

Yeosang points down to the board.

“I said checkmate. You’re in checkmate,” he says.

No, that can’t be. He must mean check—there’s no way he could be in checkmate. Seonghwa quickly turns his head down to the board because that just can’t be. 

_**Checkmate on Wonderland board:** _

_*imaging not working for me for whatever reason so here's the breakdown of the checkmate* **There are other red pieces on the board but this is the checkmate alone**_

_Red king on G8_

_Red pawn on E7_

_White pawn of F7_

_Red pawn on G7_

_Red bishop (moves like a rook) on H7_

_White pawn on E6_

_Red pawn on F6_

_White rook (moves like a knight) on G6_

_Red King is in checkmate because any free square he moves to can be captured by the rook (knight) and he cannot capture the white pawn because that would still leave him in check. He has nowhere to go_

“It is checkmate,” Jongho whispers in disbelief.

It’s actually checkmate—with pawns at that. Jongho hasn’t seen a checkmate like that in ages. No one actually tries to go for a checkmate with pawns—they always just try to promote the pawns, never win with them. But yet, here it is. A checkmate with a pawn against their king.

The Alice actually did it.

Seonghwa stares at the board, the checkmate glaring now that it was revealed. It can’t be.

“I... _lost_?” 

The teacup in his hand shatters from his tightening grip—the red liquid spilling all over the board and glass falling with it. His eye twitches slightly as his mind tries to wrap itself around the one sentence it hates the most—“I lost”. He lost a game of chess to some troublesome visitor? He lost to PAWNS?

Yeosang does not miss the complete change in mood that the king has at losing. While he does want to ask again about how to get home—since he did win fair and square—he’d have to be an idiot to not see that the king is no longer in an answering mood.

So slowly, he inches back, trying to sneak his way out of this. Maybe he’ll just go find a way home on his own while the king deals with...whatever the heck he is going through right now.

His movement does not go unnoticed though.

Seonghwa snaps his head up to him, a crazed fire now in the monarch’s eyes. Smile long gone, an annoyed and displeased frown is etched into his face.

Without warning, he shoots over the table with an angry scream and wraps his hands around Yeosang’s throat.

The force knocks the both of them to the floor, turning it into a wrestling match of sorts. The king comes out on top, pinning Yeosang to the ground. He pulls out the cold silver and warm red dagger he keeps hidden by his cloak, ready to pierce this boy once and for all. Yeosang, seeing that he’s really in some danger now, fights his hardest to knock the insane royal off of him. He holds the other’s hands back, trying his best to keep the dagger from plunging into his chest.

He uses all of his weight and force to throw his attacker off balance, getting both of them on their sides again. Moving before he can be pinned again, he kicks out—feeling really good when his foot connects right with the king’s crotch with a good amount of force, knocking the other back.

With the king distracted—doubling over in pain—Yeosang scrambles off of the ground and runs out of the room. He needs to find a way out of here.

Seonghwa raises his head up, still in pain but furious, turning to the others in the room.

“Don’t just stand there, capture him!” He shouts.

The six snap to their senses and get moving—Hongjoong going over to help him up while the others chase after the Alice.

Yeosang runs down the long hallways, trying to find either way out of this palace or—more preferable—a way out of this world. Just when he thought things couldn’t get any weirder, their king tries to kill him for winning a game. Great. Lovely. Freaking fantastic. God, he should have never followed that rabbit. That moment of stupidity will not happen again that’s for sure.

At the sound of shouting, he quickly turns and slips into a room—the door open just enough for him to slide in—hoping they’ll run past him if they come down this way.

He moves away from the door, trying to catch his breath before he has to do another mad dash.

“What in the world is going on here?” He breathes out, trying to figure out what he should do.

“The king is trying to take your heart.”

Yeosang turns his head at a neck-breaking speed at the voice—god, what is it now?

An owl on a perch stands there—somehow unsurprisingly with glasses on its face—facing him.

“What was that?” He says, keeping his voice low.

“The king takes the heart of all visitors to Wonderland. He lures them here and takes their hearts. The king of hearts, he is,” the owl says, the strangest of accents in its words.

Alright so aside from the fact that this owl—like every other damn thing in this world—can speak, this situation is even worse than he thought.

The king is trying to take his heart. This isn’t just some anger over losing—though something tells him that’s also a part of this—this was something planned since the very beginning. They’ve been leading him here so that psychotic king can take his heart.

Out of all the dumb moves he has made in his life, this takes the award for the dumbest. Of course he falls down a hole leading to his eventual death. Great job, Yeosang, great job.

He looks at the bird in suspicion. If it’s one thing he really knows now, it’s that he cannot trust anything here. Especially if it calls him Alice.

“What’s my name?” He asks, testing this bird.

“Yeosang. You don’t like to be called Alice but the king ordered that all visitors are called Alice. You are looking for a way out. I know all while you know little,” the owl responds.

Yeosang doesn’t think he’s ever been so relieved to hear his own name. It seems like this owl just answers any question asked to it. Aren’t owls like a symbol of wisdom or something? Maybe that wacky cat was right when he called him a lucky boy.

“How do I get back home? How do I leave this world?” He asks urgently. He needs to get home before he’s without a heart.

“Down you fell so up you must climb. Find the golden book of rabbit holes and the way home shall appear,” it says.

The golden book of rabbit holes? Well he did fall down a rabbit hole and that’s how he ended up here. Is the owl saying he has to go through another rabbit hole? Rabbit holes go down though—how could he possibly climb up?

“Where do I find the book at?” He asks.

“The book you seek is in the libra—”

“SHUT UP YOU STUPID BIRD!”

Yeosang quickly turns to see the Dormouse now in the room, glaring at the bird for saying too much.

“The king will pluck your feathers when he’s done with this one,” the Dormouse says, pointing to Yeosang.

The owl’s already wide eyes widen even more and flies away with a panicked hoot—not wanting its feathers taken by the king.

The Dormouse quickly charges at Yeosang, trying to grab him. Yeosang swiftly steps out of the way to avoid the grabbing hands. He sidesteps each lunge for him, trying his best not to trip over his own feet. As expected from a mouse though, he’s quick, making it harder for Yeosang.

But Yeosang is not planning on having his heart taken out of his chest, thank you very much.

As the Dormouse rushes for him again, he grabs the smaller by the arm and quickly pins it behind his back. The Dormouse struggles but Yeosang isn’t letting up his grip in the slightest.

“I look small but I’m pretty strong,” Yeosang says to the fighting mouse.

“Funny, I was about to say the same thing.”

Yeosang groans when at the familiar voice and looks up to see the Jack of Hearts standing in the doorway, sword drawn.

“You’re a real hassle, Alice. It’ll be satisfying to see you bleeding out,” the Jack says.

“Aww, glad I’m so loved,” Yeosang responds.

The Jack shoots forward, sword aiming for Yeosang’s head. Yeosang ducks though, moving the Dormouse in the way. The mouse lets out a squeak when he sees the blade stop right in front of his eyes.

“Get me out of this first before you start trying to stab him!” He shouts.

Jongho scowls and tries again, trying to cause Yeosang to either trip up or let go of Wooyoung. He’s trying his best not to hit Wooyoung but that nuisance behind him is causing a lot of close calls.

Yeosang, coming too close with that sword for his liking, suddenly gets an idea. Oh this better work.

Grabbing one of the mouse’s floppy ears, he pulls on it and yells directly into it.

The Dormouse screams at the loud sound, instinctively flailing around as his sensitive ears ring in pain. As he flails though, Yeosang quickly pushes him away, causing him to fall onto the Jack—who was unprepared to have a body thrown at him.

The two fall to the ground, disoriented and tangled in a mess of limbs.

Yeosang takes this as his cue to get running again before anyone else comes into this room.

As he passes by though, he takes the Dormouse’s thin tail and ties it around the Jack’s wrist—double knotting it for extra measures. With that done, he runs out of the room. Next stop, the library.

Jongho finally gathers his bearings, head no longer spinning from the tumble they just took. He pushes Wooyoung off of him, the older still rubbing his ear as he tries to get rid of the ringing. They both find that they can’t go very far though, Wooyoung yelping in pain when Jongho tries to push himself up.

They look to see Wooyoung’s tail tied tightly around Jongho’s wrist—and it’s no simple knot either.

“ALICE!”

Yeosang doesn’t look back when he hears the angry screams behind him. Hope they’re good friends or else being stuck together like that is going to be a pain in the ass—pun intended only because it’s not a life or death situation without at least one pun thrown in the mix.

He turns down another hallway, trying to find the damn library. This place is big but there are only so many of them after him so they can’t find him that easily.

Unfortunately for him—though lucky—he speaks too damn soon half the time.

He comes to a skidding stop when he sees the Mad Hatter and March Hare blocking his way.

And unlike that Dormouse and Jack, these two are much taller than him.

“Hey guys, nice seeing you again. Don’t mind me, I just need to—”

“Go to the library? Yeah, that’s not happening,” The March Hare says, holding up a feather.

Either that owl is a snitch on everyone or it got caught and that threat about its feathers is real. Either way, damn that owl.

But on a brighter note, based on the March Hare’s comment, he must be going the right way if they are blocking him here. Now he just has to somehow get past them.

“If I gave you carrot tea, can I change your mind?” Yeosang says smartly, digging in his pockets as if he had anything in there he could give them to bribe them somehow.

He wasn’t expecting to actually touch something.

The vials! He forgot he put them in his pocket while he was talking to the doorknob. This stuff was supposed to make him shrink right?

He doesn’t have time to think any further, however, the two tall characters running at him to grab him and lead him to his death.

Without a second thought, he throws the vials at them—the tubes breaking open and covering them in the strange liquid, some of it even getting into their mouths.

They stop in their place, a hiccup taking them both.

Yeosang thanks the heavens as he sees them go down a size with the movement.

The two both get into a hiccup fit, shrinking with each one, unable to do anything about it. Smaller and smaller they get, going down to the size of a finger.

“Cute but gotta go,” Yeosang says, running past the two now miniature people.

Yunho and Mingi fall to their bottoms as the ground shakes due to him running past. They glare in his direction, unable to follow after him at this size.

The sound of tiny squeaking barely reaches Yeosang’s ears and he has a feeling he is getting cursed at by two very tiny people. Oh well.

He continues running, looking in each room to see if he can spot the library before someone else spots him. 

His feet nearly trip over themselves as he quickly turns around—eyes catching the sight of books at the very last second. He backtracks and dashes into the room, being greeted by rows and rows of books lining the wall.

Good news: he found the library.

Bad news: he forgot that libraries have tons of books.

“Why are things never easy for me?” He gripes.

He rushes over to the wall and starts scanning, trying to figure out a way to find the book he needs ASAP.

“What did that owl say? ‘Down you fell so up you must climb. Find the golden book of rabbit holes and the way home shall appear’. So the book is gold. Look for a gold book,” he mutters to himself.

A gold book shouldn’t be too hard to find, right? Should stand out to the eyes, especially since a lot of these books are plain colors.

He pulls out a book from the shelf, checking to see if its cover matches its spine so he can tell if he can just look at the spines instead. That would make things a lot easier for him—and quicker.

He was not ready for a clawed hand to swipe at him from the now empty spot.

Yeosang stumbles back, letting out a surprised shout. He’s not given time to gather his thoughts, though, because a body suddenly appears right next to him, tackling him to the ground.

He looks up to see the Cheshire Cat on top of him, claws ready to dig into his flesh.

“You are by far the most annoying Alice we’ve had,” he growls out.

Yeosang struggles against him, trying to keep his eyes from getting slashed out.

“And you are the most annoying cat I’ve ever met,” he shoots back.

He yanks at the cat’s tail and said cat lets out a loud piercing yowl in pain. Not giving the other a chance to gather himself, Yeosang slams the book in his hand onto Cheshire’s head. Down the cat goes, allowing Yeosang to push him off of him.

“And to make sure you don’t try anything,” Yeosang mumbles, dragging Cheshire over to a post. He ties the other’s tail around it, hoping that he can’t disappear while physically tied to something.

With that done, he goes back to the book wall.

He only has so much more time until someone else comes so he has to get looking for that book.

Like a madman, he scans over the books, looking for the slightest hint of gold. He has to find this book before—

“YOU!”

Why does life hate him?

He turns around to see the livid king glaring at him—the White Rabbit next to him with two tiny people on his shoulder. The Jack is behind the king, Dormouse in his arms as the two are still connected by the mouse’s tail.

What do you know, the gang's all here.

Damn it.

“I’ll rip your heart out with my bare—”

Seonghwa’s angry statement is cut off with a surprised yelp as he has to duck a book flying over his head. He snaps back with a deadly scowl only to receive another book thrown his way.

Yeosang grabs book after book and—after making sure it’s not the one he needs—launches it at the king and his entourage. It’s not much but it’s enough to keep them at a distance unless they want to be hit with a book. And considering that all of these books are hardcover, he doesn’t think it would be a pleasant feeling.

He tries not to laugh when he sees a book hit the Dormouse in the head because the Jack did not move quickly enough.

Seonghwa, on the other hand though, does not find this amusing in the slightest.

“Why you little—”

Seonghwa ducks another book with a growl. He suddenly looks around, however, to see all of his preciously cared for books thrown all over the floor—ruining the careful organization he had and completely distracting him.

“My library!” He shrieks at the mess, instinctively moving forward to pick up the books before they get dirty.

Hongjoong quickly grabs his arm before his friend gets swept away in his need to clean.

“Alice first Hwa,” he says under his breath, turning the elder’s attention back to their troublesome guest who has gone back to searching for the golden book.

Yeosang is running his eyes over every book he possibly can—having noticed the king getting distracted. He still tosses books behind him—he is not letting his guard up at all—as he tries to find his way out of here.

There has to be some way he can find that book. Think Yeosang, think. Down he fell so up he must climb. Find the golden book of rabbit holes and the way home shall appear. Is the library organized by category? Maybe there’s a rabbit section here somewhere. Or maybe something about holes? Or maybe—

His eyes suddenly land on the sight of a tall ladder reaching up to the higher shelves.

Down he fell so up he must climb.

The book is on a higher shelf! It makes sense. He fell into this world so now to find the rabbit hole out, he has to climb up to it. He gets it now!

He hurries to the ladder and begins to climb up—not forgetting to throw unneeded books at his pursuers so as not to let them get too close to him.

Seonghwa watches him speedily climb up the ladder and his eyes immediately spot what that pest is trying to find.

“ **No** ,” he snarls, seeing that golden book tease him. He will not let that nuisance get away. He **_will_ ** have his heart.

Seonghwa’s hands begin to glow red as he taps into his connection to the land, using it for his own power. Those nearest to him take a step back when they spot the crimson shine in his eyes, knowing well that they should not stand too close to him. Even San who has come to his senses sometime during the book throwing stops trying to untie his tail, finding his distance much safer now.

After all, it’s not every day Seonghwa uses his connection like this.

The ground begins to shake, causing books to fall off the shelves and the very ladder Yeosang is on to wobble.

He needs to find that book before he falls to his death because he is quite high up at the moment and that will be a very painful fall. And considering that this thing has wheels, he really doesn’t want to know what will happen if he’s thrown off balance.

He tries to look at the books, praying that the one he needs is not too far for him to reach or one of those that is falling down. He doesn’t think he wants to try moving while the ground is shaking intensely.

Seonghwa scowls as he sees the boy still on the ladder and searching for the book. He causes the ground to shake even harder, determined to see him fall to his demise.

Even more books begin to fall and Yeosang desperately holds on to the ladder. He’s going to die here if a miracle doesn’t happen soon. If the world is nice to him this one last time, he’ll go vegetarian for a month. He promises. He won’t even touch a chicken leg—he swears he won’t if the world is kind to him this time.

He can complain about vegetarian gods hearing his vow later.

As another rush of books fall to the ground, a glimmer that he couldn’t spot before flashes in his eyes.

Farewell chicken—he’ll see you in a month.

Yeosang reaches out, fingers brushing against the golden spine with one hand as he tightly holds on to the ladder with his other.

A particularly rough shake makes him grab back on to the ladder. God, he’s about to risk his life for a book to save his life—the irony. He can think about that later though. First, he just has to get that book no matter what.

So he reaches out again, trying to grab it without falling.

He doesn’t think it ever felt so good to feel a book underneath his fingertips.

He quickly pulls the book out of its place and brings it to him. He looks at it, feeling so relieved when he sees the cover saying something about rabbit holes that he doesn’t care to read in its entirety.

Quickly, he opens the book with his one free hand, trying to find what he is supposed to do now that he has the book.

Seonghwa does not plan on letting that happen.

“ **FALL ALREADY!** ” He shouts, stomping his foot, sending the most violent and destructive tremor they’ve felt so far—the ground splitting open at the force and everyone but him falling to the floor, unable to withstand the force.

Red shines through the broken ground, a wave of pure scarlet energy rushing through with lethal force. The wave hits the ladder, splitting it in half with its power, the rungs breaking like twigs.

Yeosang lets out a frightened shout when the rung beneath his feet snaps and he goes plummeting down to the ground—a tidal wave of books falling after him.

The books hit the ground with a resounding thud.

Seonghwa stops the earthquake, red glow in his eyes sparking with satisfaction.

Finally. That pest is dead. He’ll finally get to see that beautiful, deep, life-giving red. He doesn’t even care if his books get stained and ruined—it’s all worth it to finally see the blood of that pesky Alice.

He scurries over to the massive pile of books, eager to have his prize at long last.

Still using his power from the connection, he pushes the books away by the handfuls with a sweep of his hand. He can clean up the mess after.

He pushes through the books, digging through the enormous pile so as to uncover the one sight he’s been waiting to see this entire day. He’s so close.

At last, he finally reaches the last bit covering his reward—pushing it away with a flourished wave of his hand.

Empty.

Seonghwa is greeted with nothing but a bare floor—no body, no blood, no Alice.

“No, no,” he mumbles.

He waves his hand and a faint outline of a hole lights up red, revealing that there was indeed a rabbit hole there that is now closed.

He hastily looks up to the shelves and the world taunts him as an ever-familiar golden book reappears—the lone book on a vastly empty wall—not only confirming that the hole is closed but that it will not open again. 

Not for another ten years.

Seonghwa’s fingers slowly begin to curl, the glow around them darkening to a deadly shade of his signature color. His stare turns cold but far out—a sign that he is lost in his head.

He got away.

Slowly, Seonghwa looks around, taking in the mess that was once his beautiful library. Books thrown everywhere, his ladder broken, clean white floor torn up, and his shelves with hairline cracks in it. It’s all ruined.

He beat him in his own game, ruined his stuff, and escaped.

He got away.

“I...lost... **_twice_ **?”

The grand window looking out to the picturesque view of the palace garden suddenly becomes less appealing as the six in the room have a clear view of the beautiful crystal blue sky darkening—an apocalyptic crimson staining it. Plants outside immediately begin to shrivel up—losing their vibrant, lively colors and dying. The wind visibly picks up, blowing the dead plants away without any resistance.

When lightning cracks through the sky, they all know that this is not good.

“I. Lost. **_TWICE_ **.”

Seonghwa’s voice drops into a rough growl at the last word, loud thunder breaking through the air and causing everyone to jump.

He’s absolutely enraged.

“You didn’t lose—w-we can get you another heart! There are prisoners whose hearts you can take instead of beheading them. Or or I’m sure a citizen would be honored to serve you by offering you their heart. You didn’t lose...it’s just a change of plans!” Hongjoong tries, attempting to calm down the royal before this gets any worse.

It seems though that Alice took all the luck with him.

Seonghwa turns to Hongjoong, a fire blazing in his eyes and jaw clenching tightly.

“I don’t want a citizen’s heart, I WANT THAT ALICE’S HEART! I LOST TO HIM TWICE! I WANT HIM DEAD!” He shouts.

The room shakes as lightning snaps through the sky again and thunder rumbles with the force of an earthquake.

Yunho and Mingi take advantage of their new small size and hide in Hongjoong’s pocket, no longer wanting to see the wrath of their eldest. Wooyoung clings tighter to Jongho, silently begging him not to put him down. Jongho, though he tries to mask it, clings to Wooyoung tighter to calm his own slight tremble. San, still tied to the post, decides to turn invisible in an attempt to hide—his tail the only thing still seen as it remains tied. None of them want to face the rare display of rage that their normally calm and kind king is showing. Only Hongjoong stays the same, unable to turn away with Seonghwa staring directly at him. He will not anger him more.

“That Alice’s name is forbidden! If I dare hear a single utter of his name in this land, I WILL GIVE A PUNISHMENT WORSE THAN DEATH! NO ONE IS TO SAY HIS NAME!” Seonghwa roars.

They all immediately nod, understanding loud and clear. Never again will that name be mentioned.

“Yes, your highness. We’ll make the decree known throughout the land at once,” Hongjoong says, knowing well how quickly word travels here and that by now, many know that something did not go right for the king.

They often do not use his titles when it’s just them alone but none of them have ever seen Seonghwa this angry before—not even when that joker tried to get in his way. This is a whole new level of anger.

And it’s all that Alice’s fault.

Seonghwa begins to storm out of the room, not wanting to spend another second around this mess—this reminder of his losses.

Ten more long years he has to wait to get another heart. TEN YEARS! It’s all _His_ fault! This will never happen again! He will never lose like this ever again! This is the first and last Alice that will ever escape—this he swears.

“Maids! Attend to the library immediately!” He orders as he leaves the room.

The six remaining in the room let out a simultaneous breath.

“Keep everyone out of his way for a day?” San asks, reappearing, hesitantly looking out of the window and seeing how dark the sky has become.

“SOMEONE FIND ME THAT DAMN OWL!”

They all flinch at the sound and for a brief second, even they feel bad for the bird. If only it learned to keep its mouth shut.

“If that shout is anything to go by, I say two. The only ones not risking death at this point is us,” Hongjoong says.

And they’d like to keep not risking death so they’ll make sure everyone else stays away and not anger him more.

The sky darkens even more and another bolt of lightning rips through the sky, setting a dead tree on fire.

Maids scramble into the library to get started cleaning—some of them looking as if they have seen a ghost.

They definitely passed Seonghwa on their way here.

“I’ll go try to calm him down as much as I can. The rest of you, go spread the decree, or else we’ll really have a mess on our hands,” Hongjoong says.

He places Yunho and Mingi on Jongho’s shoulder. Hopefully those two find some growing cookies and the knots on Wooyoung and San’s tails are undone soon because they need all hands on deck. Who knows how many people in Wonderland already know of the name of this decade’s Alice. They need to control it before a real nightmare is unleashed upon the land.

“OFF WITH ITS HEAD!”

Wonderland is in **A LOT** of trouble.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it 😊
> 
> Feel free to talk to me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/EVXinav)
> 
> Or [Curious Cat](https://curiouscat.me/EvXina)
> 
> Until next time!


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